Premature Burial in Locust Grove Cemetery

Fear and paranoia lead many to do strange and irrational things. One case in point can be found resting within the confines of Twinsburg’s Locust Grove Cemetery. Prior to the advancements in medicine and biology we have all come to take for granted, there was a time when the fear of being buried alive was a very real, very plausible scenario. Many stories exist of those unfortunate souls found minutes, hours, or days too late to be saved, having run out of air, food, and drink. Such a scenario was immortalized through the words and writings of Edgar Allan Poe in 1844, when he published “The Premature Burial.” The notoriety of Poe’s prose and other stories may have led one local to take precautions so as to avoid a similar fate.

A body rests in Locust Grove Cemetery with not one but two bullets in its head. The victim of foul play? Not at all. According to Twinsburg Historical Society member Marti Franks, the woman interred in the grave, Rebecca Young, stipulated that upon her death the attending doctor ensure her departure was final. And so he did, or so the story goes. No nails clawing at the inside of the coffin, no muffled cries from beneath the ground, no lasting uncertainty; in this very unusual instance, peace of mind came from two shots from a gun.